Bern

Bern Somehow a bunch of fresh faces from the Glorious Blades joined us out here. How they found us I have no idea. Pretty sure I don’t know where I am at this point. But Rowen must have had something to do with it, since she wandered out of town muttering about ley lines about the same time. I let her go without comment. I don’t need ley lines, I need my arm fixed.

Bern Ygnas caught up to join us, and we left town to the south after picking up the weatherproof cloak Rowen had ordered for me. About the cloak, the less said the better. It’s waterproof, and highly visible. I think the designer described it as plaid. Or maybe paisley. I don’t know what those words mean, but a blind elephant could see this cloak from miles away. I’m going to have to pack it back up any time I need to hide.

Bern The “not that simple” part started when Rowen burst through the door. We explained what was happening with the mossy dwarf, and trekked back to Blackeswell, passing a strange black iron cauldron on the way. Someone had hidden it next to a wolf’s den. When we woke up in the morning, it had moved closer to me, apparently by itself. Creepy. Back in Blackeswell, we stopped by the Klepp workshop.

Bern We traveled further south and encountered the town of Blackeswell, which was very fishy. All the food and drink smelled strongly of fish and was quite green. We refused to take more than a single sip or swallow of the stuff, fearing we would turn as green as most of the populace. We spoke to a priest who claimed to serve St Gondyw, but he was completely unwelcoming and would rather be rid of us.

Bern u-Heury finally made his wish: “I wish for my beautiful princess, who remains loyal to me through time, to come to me, riding on her mammoth when it is time to form my kingdom.” The kid spent a mighty long time thinking to come up with that. He seems to think he deserves a kingdom, a beautiful princess, and a mammoth. The loyal bit was an interesting twist, and I’m curious how tall his princess and her mammoth will be seeing as he was about 6 inches tall when he made the wish.

Bern Selaena managed to get us an update: the Princess was overjoyed to hear that her True Love yet lived and sought her embrace, but insisted on seeing the ring before actually doing anything. So we tried to arrange another distraction. The guests kept demanding new and obscure dishes (everything from roast swan to pizza rolls) and sending the waitstaff – us – down to the kitchens to get it.

Bern We returned to Westkeep for a few days to heal, sealing the tomb again on the way out. On the trip back, we noticed a strange tree shaped like a gigantic foot, and a flock of hawk-deer hybrids. We avoided both. In Westkeep, I passed on the news about the gnome and his grain to the local priest. Seleana volunteered to look for herbs to help our recovery, and I went hunting to help pay for her room at the inn in return.

Bern I had been putting this damn arm problem off long enough. I got the Glorious Blades back together in Westwood, planning to explore the Dolmenwood and make contact with a fae who might be able to fix my arm… somehow. It wasn’t as well planned as I’d like but I was out of ideas and so were the local churches. Oscar offered me the shield he had been using, a huge piece of twisted iron that I was surprised he could even lift, much less fight with.

Bern So we stumbled around in the forest for a while, looking for a mound and finding nothing. We did find a nest of phase spiders, which are like normal spiders except they can disappear, and have an absolutely vicious poison that takes ten minutes to kill you. We didn’t realize they were phase spiders at first; the kid shot one with his bow and hurt it a bit, but I put in a solid hit with mine and it just bounced off.

Bern Oscar sent word that he had found a sword that might work well for me. Apparently it has some history with the White League, a group of rangers dedicated to opposing … things. It’s a little unclear exactly what things. This one is supposed to oppose scales, even though we found it in the barrow of a dead lizard king, and the blade itself is covered in serpent markings.